August 1988 - Vol. 31 No. 8
Features
Computer science education in the People’s Republic of China in the late 1980s
Last year a delegation of international computer professionals with interests in computer science education participated in an information exchange with colleagues in the People's Republic of China. The delegation's experiences suggest that the Chinese have made substantial progress in some aspects of computer science education since late 1982, but that difficult problems remain to be solved.
An empirical study of computer capacity planning in Japan
Capacity planners in Japan rely heavily on intuitive and judgmental approaches in their computer capacity planning functions, even more so than their U.S. counterparts, according to the following survey. The emphasis in large Japanese firms on job rotations, lifetime employment, and extensive social and informal interaction among employees helps contribute to the effectiveness of these judgmental methods.
A Chinese-English microcomputer system
Computing in the People's Republic of China has recently begun to gain momentum. Because of China's large population, its computing requirements are of worldwide interest. This article discusses the background of Chinese computing and the implementation of a Chinese-English microcomputer system which is now being used in several places including the PRC.
The Computing Research Board's 1986-87 Taulbee Survey includes the latest statistics on production and employment of Ph.D.'s and faculty in computer science and engineering. For the first time, departments offering Ph.D.'s in computer engineering are also included.
Application of splay trees to data compression
The splay-prefix algorithm is one of the simplest and fastest adaptive data compression algorithms based on the use of a prefix code. The data structures used in the splay-prefix algorithm can also be applied to arithmetic data compression. Applications of these algorithms to encryption and image processing are suggested.
Computation of cyclic redundancy checks via table look-up
Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) codes provide a simple yet powerful method of error detection during digital data transmission. Use of a table look-up in computing the CRC bits will efficiently implement these codes in software.
Benchmarks for LAN performance evaluation
A technique for quickly benchmarking the performance of local area networks (LANs) is presented. Programs which model both intermittent and constant network activity are given.
